V. I. Lenin

Speech at a Meeting ofSoldiers of an Armoured Battalion in Mikhailovsky Manège

April 15 (28), 1917

NEWSPAPER REPORT

Published:Soldatskaya PravdaNo. 2, April 18 (May 1), 1917.

      Printed from theSoldatskaya Pravdatext.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1977,

      Moscow,Volume 41,

      pages402.2-404.1.Translated:Yuri SdobnikovTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaCopyleft:V. I. Lenin Internet Archive (www.marxists.org)
      © 2004

      Permission is granted to copy and/or distribute this document under the
      terms of theGNU Free Documentation License.

WeSocial-Democrats who take the standpoint of inter national
socialism, are being accused of having returned to Russia via Germany, of
having been bribed by the Germans and of being traitors to the national
cause, the cause of freedom.

Whois saying all this? Who is spreading these lies and slander?

Soldiersand workers who read the working-class news papers are aware
that a decision of the Soviet which was taken after a hearing of the report
by Comrade Zinovievand Comrade Zurabov on how we managed to make our way across Germany, was
published inIzvestia Sovieta Rabochikh i Soldatskikh
Deputatov{1}No. 32, of April 5, 1917.

Didthe Soviet reprimand us? No. What did the Soviet say? It replied
that it wanted the Provisional Government to take urgent measures for the
unhampered passage to Russia of all Russian political exiles living abroad.

ComradeLenin then stated that until now the Provisional Government has
failed to take any measures and that our socialist comrades living abroad
could not return to Russia. Why? Simply because Britain, who has a stake in
this fratricidal slaughter, has refused to allow passage for our socialist
comrades, socialists who have declared war against war and demand
peace. The British are keeping in prison one of their own British
socialists,{2}and have also arrested and imprisoned our Comrade
Trotsky, who was Chairman of the Soviet of Workers’ Deputies in 1905.

Butthat is precisely what has been done by all the capitalist and
landowner governments favouring this war: the French, the German and the
Italian governments have thrown all anti-war socialists into prison and are
keeping them there.

Wasit possible in the circumstances to travel via Britain? No. That is
why we had to apply to the Swiss socialist Platten, who also favours peace.

Whatwas the upshot of this?

Leninand those who travelled with him were let through, but our
witness, Comrade Platten, who could testify that we had had no contacts
with the Germans, was not allowed to come to Russia.

Whatis the point of all this?

Itis that this war, which is now taking hundreds of thousands of lives
a month, is being waged by the capitalists—they stand to gain from the
war, they are profiting from it, and that is why all those who want peace
and work for it are being imprisoned by the capitalists of all countries,
including the brigand and plunderer Wilhelm, who spread lies and slander
about the socialists.

ComradeLenin then went on to give a detailed explanation of the causes
of the war and its aims. He showed thatthe working class and the poor peasants have never wanted and do not want
this or any other war. He also spoke in detail about the nature of the
Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies and of the Provisional
Government, on which the industrialist Guchkov and the landowners have
seats.

Supportand help should not go to the Provisional Government, but to
the Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies, which is the only legitimate
government and which alone expresses the people’s interests.

{1}Izvestia Petrogradskogo Sovieta Rabochikh i Soldatskikh
Deputatov(Bulletin of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies)—a daily; the first issue appeared on February 28 (March 13),1917, under the titleIzvestia Petrogradskogo Sovieta
Rabochikh Deputatov(Bulletin of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’
Deputies); from No. 3 of March 2 (15) the paper became the organ of the
Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’ Deputies.

Withthe formation, at the First All-Russia Congress of Soviets, of the
Central Executive Committee of the Soviets of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies, the paper became its organ and from August 1 (14) (No. 132) was
published under the nameIzvestia Tsentralnogo Ispolnitelnogo
Komiteta i Petrogradskogo Sovieta Rabochikh i Soldatskikh Deputatov(Bulletin of the Central ExecutiveCommittee and of the Petrograd Soviet of Workers’ and Soldiers’
Deputies). The paper’s political line was determined by the representatives
of the S.R.-Menshevik bloc who conducted the conciliatory policy of
supporting the bourgeois Provisional Government and who opposed the
revolutionary action of the proletariat.

Afterthe Second All-Russia Congress of Soviets, its Editorial Board
was changed and the newspaper became the official organ of the Soviet
Government. It carried the first important documents of the Soviet
Government and Lenin’s articles and speeches. In March 1918, its
publication was transferred to Moscow.

Afterthe formation of the U.S.S.R. in December 1922, the paper became
the organ of the Central Executive Committee of the U.S.S.R. and the
All-Russia Central Executive Committee. Under a decision of the Presidium
of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R. on January 24, 1938, the paper was
reorganised and since January 26, 1938, until the present day it has been
published under the name ofIzvestia Sovietov Deputatov
Trudyashchikhsya(Bulletin of the Soviets of Working People’s
Deputies).

p. 403

{2}A reference to J. Maclean.

p. 403